First Impressions
by golden-iridescence
Summary: College!AU - Cress is at the Mech Shop to help out Cinder, and Thorne expects her to be there to help out him. Will their relationship progress from the snark-fest of the beginning, or are they doomed from the start?
1. Chapter 1

Cress wasn't even sure where the Mech Shop _was_. It was only because Cinder needed help with running the program for her engineering that she was there - Cress loved her friend, but honestly, she had absolutely no clue on how to run a computer program. Fixing an engine, though? Piece of cake. She'd learned not to question it after Cinder had saved her laptop after Cress had nearly fried the hard-drive.

Cinder liked to blare music in the Mech Shop, this time playing _Wreak Havoc_ while she did presumably just that to the decrepit, erm, 'whatever' she was working on. Cress was setting up the program to run on repeat when the harsh beat was interrupted with the screech of tires on asphalt in front of the shop, as a shiny red sports car swung into view. The door opened lazily, letting Cress hear long footsteps. _Probably Scarlet and Wolf coming to pick up Cinder_ , she thought, turning her attention to the software that was now glitching. She let out a huff of air and typed a series of commands in, watching as the computer twisted itself back into the appropriate program.

"So, big fan of Skylar Grey, huh?" said a deep voice from behind her, making her jump.

That was definitely _not_ Scarlet and Wolf.

"Ex-excuse me?" Cress twisted so fast to look at whatever person the voice belonged to that she hip-checked herself into the rolling cart next to her. _Nice one Cress, first thing you say to a random stranger is a stutter. Really killing the game._

"The song," he said, raising a hand to reference to the drumbeats and lyrics flooding every corner of the Mech Shop. "You were singing along."

"I was?" she asked nonchalantly, as her mind stumbled across the image in front of her.

It was Carswell Thorne.

Carswell Thorne, notorious on campus for flunking classes, being a womanizer, and taking advantage of any girl he could just to get in her pants.

Who also happened to be the most attractive person she'd ever laid eyes on. Tall as hell (even though she was pretty short, so 'tall' was a relative word to her), thick brownish-blonde hair, chiseled jaw, and blue eyes that she was sure at least five women would do anything for.

"Yeah," he replied, watching her with an amused smirk on his face as he unabashedly let his eyes wander over her small frame. "You were. I'm here to pick up Cinder, if you know where she is?"

"Cinder, right. She didn't say you were coming," she muttered quickly, rising from the grease-stained concrete she'd been kneeling on.

"She wouldn't have," Carswell Thorne said with a smile. "It's a surprise." He put a finger to his lips in a 'shh' motion, as if to further indicate that he wasn't there.

"O-kay," said Cress, becoming annoyed with the person in front of her. "And what am I supposed to do about it?" He looked almost taken aback by this answer. What did he expect? For her to suddenly read his mind and understand in explicit detail whatever he wanted her to do?

"Well, tell her to come over and let me surprise her, of course," Thorne smiled jauntily. Jeez, for all the rumors that floated around about the person in front of her, a supposed 'god of pick up lines' and 'the most smooth seducer to ever be known', he just came off as a real asshat. Like she was going to pull any muscles to help anyone like _that_ out.

"Yeah, no."

"Excuse me?"

"You just come into the Mech Shop and expect me to do whatever you want as you beckon all because you're 'Carswell Thorne'? That's not happening. Cinder asked me to come in and set up her software, and that's all I'm going to do. If you want to surprise her, that's fine. But do it yourself, and don't try and drag me into whatever scheme you have just because you think you can."

He stared at her for a long moment. "Huh."

She lifted an eyebrow and looked at him from her position almost a foot below him. Damnit, why did he have to be so tall? "Got a problem with that?"

"Well, kinda," he said, scratching his chin. "I was hoping you'd help me out. Like, I'd help you, you'd help me?"

"What could you possibly help me with?"

"Well, you could go get Cinder, and you could be helped by me by allowing me to know your name." He smiled crookedly, like he was an aphrodisiac made human.

"So your whole approach is 'help me with this and I'll _let you_ introduce yourself to me'?"

His smile dropped. "Not a great plan?"

Cress smirked a little herself as she drew her chin up in a slight nod. "Not a good plan."

"Well then, I'm screwed."

"I'll say," Cress replied, turning her back to him as she hit the enter key of Cinder's laptop, watching as the software booted up in perfect sync with the program, like two gears with perfectly interlocking teeth. "Well, have fun surprising her."

"I will," he said hesitantly, like there was more to say.

"Something picking your brain, Carswell?" She liked the way his smile grew a bit clenched when she used his first name when he was known almost exclusively by his last. It only made her want to use his first name more, to be honest.

"You never said what your name was, but you know who I am. That's just not fair." He smiled winningly, like his thoughts were 'this time for sure she'll fall for it!'.

She turned her head to crane over her shoulder, not wanting to skid her knees against the cold concrete floor anymore than she'd already had to. "Didn't anyone ever tell you? Life's not fair, Carswell." He turned, looking more amused and curious than the defeat she'd been looking for. "It must really suck when women don't fall all over themselves to help you out, huh?"

"Yeah," he said, flashing that white-toothed smile at her. "Sure does. Have fun with Skylar Grey?"

"Trust me," Cress said, turning back to the laptop with confidence that came out of nowhere. "I will."

Cinder and Carswell Thorne approached her two minutes later, Cinder to retrieve her laptop and Carswell to stare at her in that curiously amused fashion of his. "You didn't help Thorne out?" Cress shook her head, typing a text to Scarlet asking for a ride, the cloudy gray sky having turned into a downpour of icy rain. "Nice one."

"Well, I try," she said, giving a wave to their retreating backs.

Carswell Thorne might be a womanizing school-skipping student with a record for both how many shots of vodka he could do without getting plain wasted and how many girls he could sleep with, but Crescent Darnel wasn't going to be part of his lists or another notch in his belt. He couldn't just flash those white teeth and use that smirking wicked grin to get her to bend to his will like putty.

No, Carswell Thorne was _not_ getting the better of her. Not today, not ever.


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Cress saw Carswell Thorne was one week later at a karaoke club. Iko had dragged her and Cinder to Ladies' Night in hope she would get them to perform with her, and Cress had been sipping an iced tea in the corner while texting instructions on how to reboot a computer to Wolf.

"Hey you."

She looked up in surprise, her eyes locking with Thorne's annoyingly handsome face. "Hey," she said, finishing typing her instructions and sending them while maintaining eye contact, trying to conceal the panic that started to frost inside her chest. She'd _really_ made a bad first impression. Even if he had a bad rep didn't mean she had to have been so sarcastic towards him, did it? "Can I help you with something?"

"Well, I'd love a foot massage." He quirked an eyebrow at her unchanging facial expression, and cracked a smile. "Kidding. Mind if I sit with you?" Thorne pulled out the chair across from her and continued talking, putting his feet up on the table, forcing her to edge her drink away from potentially being kicked. "Iko roped me into coming - she thinks she needs backup to talk to some guy that works here."

"Kinney." Cress broke eye contact for a moment to set her phone on the table facedown, giving Throne her full attention.

"Yeah, him. She the reason you're here?"

"Yup. Iko wants me to perform with her." Cress tried to contain rolling her eyes, but she couldn't help the sarcasm that dripped off of her words like syrup. "Not happening but at least there's entertainment," she said, and motioned to the stage, where singers were lining up.

"Why wouldn't you sing? You're really good." Thorne looked at her earnestly, really looked at her - like he was trying to discern the color of her eyes in the multicolor strobe flashes that robbed you of your eyesight if you caught a glance at the burning bulbs. "Don't deny it, I heard you in the Mech Shop last week. You were singing Skylar Grey, remember?"

"I remember," Cress mumbled, looking down at her hands. She didn't expect him to remember anything other than the snark-fest that happened between the two. _Stellar first impression, Cress_. "I can sing, I just don't sing in front of -" she motioned to the crowd with a vague wave of her arm. "Large groups of people. Not really a fan of the eyes of the masses staring into my soul."

"Why," he drawled, watching the way her eyes flickered between him, Iko watching inconspicuously and giving her a thumbs-up from across the room, and the obnoxious strobe lights flashing and burning after images into her retinas. "Sometimes a little soul-staring is good for you, like fresh air or another episode of _Stranger Things_."

"What other episode? Season One was only eight." She hoped he wouldn't notice the obvious change in conversation, but she wasn't getting on that stage. For one, she didn't like crowds. She especially didn't like being the object of attention of a crowd, and the stage was right where the attention was.

"Well, yeah, but still, it's the principle of the thing. Besides, it's good to break out of your shell."

"What shell?" she scoffed, immediately regretting the words as they poured out covered in a thick layer of glossy sarcasm and deadpan humor. "You don't even know me, _Carswell Thorne_."

"Well m'dear, that I'll have to disagree with. I know a little about you, _Crescent Darnel_." She stiffened immediately at the use of her full name - no one used it. No one _had_ used it for a long time. "I know you're majoring in Computer Science and are probably going to graduate valedictorian, and you can text without looking," he said, motioning to her phone, now clasped in frozen fingers. "I know you're a damn good singer and have a pretty good sense of snark and sarcasm." Thorne paused. "Maybe a little too good of a sense."

"Thanks," she mumbled, blood flushing her ears and cheeks bright red. "It's just Cress. How do you know that?"

"I have mad skills, Cress," Thorne said, leaning back further in his chair, which was now teetering precariously on two legs. "If there's something I want to know, I can find it out."

"Which translates to?"

"I bribed Cinder to tell me." The devilish smirk was back in play now, assessing her carefully with wickedly intuitive eyes. Cress's blush receded a bit and she took another sip of her iced tea, taking her time to try and figure out what to say next.

"I guess I owe her a punch in the shoulder then."

Thorne threw his hands into the air comically, somehow maintaining his balance as he did so. "Hey now, don't let me be the reason for violence."

Cress smirked a little over the rim of her glass. "If Cinder's giving away information about me to people I don't know, I think she deserves a little payback."

"You don't _know_ me?" Thorne seemed offended, and a little surprised at that. He planted the chair down with a muted _thunk_ as it smacked down onto the slightly sticky floor. "I am _offended_. You certainly must know me."

"I know enough."

"Such as? I'm thoroughly enthralled with whatever is floating around about little old me." Cress smiled a little at the thought that Thorne _didn't_ know every rumor and tidbit of information that had to do with him. He didn't seem like the type to not care. Honestly, he seemed like the type to pass along whatever ridiculous rumors were circulating, or at the very least, not deny them.

"Which rumors do you want to hear about?" Cress asked dryly. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Iko rushed over to the table, nearly knocking her drink to the floor.

"Guys! I need someone to duet with me. Karaoke. Now. Kinney is over there with _someone else_ , and I need to show him what he's missing!" Iko was panting, and grabbed Cress's half-full glass to drain it completely. "This is serious!"

"Crescent?" Thorne prompted slyly, a smirk quirking at the corner of his mouth. She shook her head sharply, while she tried to make her eyes convey 'not happening even if Hell freezes over'. "Ah, I guess it's the Captain to the rescue!" He tilted an invisible hat on his head jauntily, offering his arm to Iko as she sighed audibly with relief. She flashed Cress a wink so fast that she may have imagined it as they walked to the line of singers. She sighed a little herself.

Maybe she'd misjudged Thorne?

He certainly didn't _seem_ like that total jackass the rumors made him out to be most of the time. He looked like a nice guy as he sang Shout Out to My Ex tunelessly. Iko was great, but his voice made her wince. At least she was having fun onstage. Iko was practically the exact opposite of her: good with people, self confident, good in social situations. There was a reason she lived on the karaoke stage and Cress lived in the corner table with her phone.

Cress reached without looking in search of said phone. She should at least check in and see if Wolf managed to successfully breathe life back into his busted laptop, or if he still needed help.

Her hand slid across the flat top of the table, through the rings of condensation, and her fingers curled around the metal casing. She picked it up to recognize an unfamiliar lock screen of Thorne and Cinder. One of them was rolling her eyes, the other was laughing so hard the shot was nearly blurred.

Her phone was gone. Next to where it had been sitting was a piece of paper, scribbled on with black ink.

 _CRESS - FOR INSURANCE. MEET ME TOMORROW, I'LL TEXT YOU WHERE._

 _TAKE CARE OF MY PHONE ;)_

Cress gaped, looking down at the stranger's phone in her hand.

She was going to _kill_ Carswell Thorne.


End file.
